The Bloodless (27 page)

              “Wait,” Crowder said unexpectedly, “maybe one of us should stay behind.”

              “What the fuck are you sayin’,” Saturn yelled at Crowder, “we need to get out of here and now. We got plenty of time.”

              “No, wait. It’s just weird isn’t it?”

              “What’s weird?” I asked.

              “That they are coming here, to this specific location.”

              “Why is that weird?”

              “Because, it’s not like they know we’re here and it’s not like they followed Fox here. Why are they coming here? I think we should hide and see what makes this place so special.”

              “He makes an excellent point Daniel,” said Fox. “There’s no way any of them followed me. Wait…” Fox trailed off as he looked at Buggs who seemed to be transfixed on a location just inside the tree line behind the warehouse.

              We all tensed up and slowly drew out our weapons. Now everyone was looking to the tree line where Buggs was looking, but Buggs was probably the only one who knew what he was looking at. “What is it,” I whispered.

              Buggs nodded in the direction of the woods, “In there. Movement.”

              I looked to Blink but he didn’t respond, which was not a good sign; a terrible sign, actually. “Who’s there,” I shouted. “Show yourself!” Slowly two hands emerged from the darkness followed by a mane a silver blonde hair.

              “That is the second time one of your company has said that to me,” Natalia said calmly.

              We all lowered our guns. “What the fuck are you doing here?” I asked.

              Natalia raised an eyebrow and looked curiously at me. “You request backup, so we came.”

              “I never requested backup.” I looked to everyone else, “Did you hear me request backup?” They all shook their heads.

              “Brantley told group you called for backup, that you were under heavy fire,” Natalia said.

              “Ahh fuck!” I didn’t have an escape for my seething anger, nothing to hit and I wasn’t about to throw my gun to the ground. Instead I opted for a queer little pirouette and threw my hands in the air. I then looked over at Burns who, for the first time ever, had a shadow of an apology on his face. I couldn’t believe that asshole Brantley lied about something like that. I figured he’d make some kind of attempt to get in on the action but I didn’t think he’d put everyone at risk because he had some sort of clandestine grandiose victory in mind.

              I found out later that’s exactly what he had in mind. He obviously didn’t share with anyone because he wanted all the glory for him and his troops. He wasn’t actually marching on the substation but rather right at the main compound, the substation just happened to be along the same path. They recklessly didn’t bother to stay out of sight and attacked the first Bloodless patrol they came across. Unfortunately it was a bait squad and there were hundreds more lying in wait and they all retaliated on Brantley’s squad at once, easily wiping them out.

              You might be asking yourself why he would even meet up with us in the first place if he was just going to storm the place anyway. Simply, he wanted more information. He thought Burns would have it seeing as though he had been fighting for so long. Obviously when we didn’t share any information that he deemed valuable he was upset, then to top it off, I suggested they sit back and assume a reserve role. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back and they struck out on their own, much to their own dismay.

              I didn’t have much sympathy for them but it was still a pretty large blow. We went from a burgeoning force instantly back to a rinky dink operation. I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but there were right around twenty people in Brantley’s squad and not one of them survived. “Where’s the rest of your people, Natalia?” I asked, trying to feign calm. She snapped her fingers and Ares and Lukas came out of their hiding spots. “Wow, you have them trained really well.”

              “Not trained,” Natalia said flatly, “loyal.”

              “You mean like your android that didn’t give away your position,” I retorted. Natalia smirked.

              “Daniel, look,” Burns started.

              “It wasn’t your fault, Burns,” I said. “I’m not mad at you. It’s their own damn fault for being that damn arrogant. They probably would’ve ended up getting us killed anyway, so it’s probably better this way.” Sure, I was rationalizing but it was the only thing that made me feel better about the situation.

              “This is definitely FUBAR, sir,” Burns said with a slight grin. I’m not sure how he managed to smile at that point.

              “Two minutes,” Blink said out of nowhere. It took me a couple moments to realize what he was talking about, but when I did, a panic slithered up my spine.

              “Damn! All right, let’s fall back. Not worth dying now,” I said and I started to walk away from the warehouse.

              “I’m staying,” said Crowder and I turned to look at him and saw that he had a resolute look on his face.

              “Don’t be an idiot man.”

              “I need to see what’s so special about this place,” he responded.

              “Fine. Buggs?”

              “Stayin’.”

              “Good. Make sure the kid doesn’t get himself killed.” I made sure everyone else was heading in the same direction as me before I set off. I looked back at Crowder and he seemed a little shocked to be standing there with Buggs of all people.

              “So,” Burns said as we quickly made our way along the path, “do you think Pillar was with them?”

              I laughed, “Of course not! That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. She didn’t want to do the job that required very little enemy interaction, why on Earth would she want to go on a suicide mission? No, I’m sure she’s sitting back at HQ laughing her ass off at all us idiots throwing our lives away.”

              Whatever she was doing, the fact remained that we had managed to disable another substation and with very little resistance and effort, on our part anyway. Despite the massive loss of life that day, I felt pretty good as we made our way back to base. We had just narrowly avoided meeting the massive surge of Bloodless that stationed themselves at the warehouse. During the journey back I made sure Crowder and Buggs checked in regularly to keep me informed of what was going on and so I knew they were still alive.

              After some time, I left them to their own devices and killed the radio link so they could get a little closer to the action. I was eager for Crowder and Buggs to get back so I could hear all about what the hell those soulless lumps of flesh were up to.

              The sun began to rise as we neared the shack, at least I think it was beginning to rise. According to my watch it should’ve been. We were treated to a few rare glimpses of sun rays piercing The Cloud. Still, that day happened to be a little darker than usual, but maybe that was more due to the death black plume of smoke rising from the direction of the shack.

CHAPTER 13

Black Velvet Sundae
 

              I just remember running, getting to the shack was the only thing on my mind. Never before had I seen such dark smoke billowing up from that direction. I hoped against hope that it was just a random building that caught fire but my gut was telling me something else, something I didn’t want to hear. I ran as fast as I could and then I ran faster. I thought maybe if I moved fast enough I would spin the Earth backwards and reverse the flow of time itself. Unfortunately the only superpower I ever had was the ability to fuck up any given situation.

              When I arrived at the shack I don’t know what was yelling louder, me or my burning muscles. I say yelling, but it was more like a choking, gasping noise as my lungs didn’t have the energy to expand and take in oxygen anymore. Our base, my home, was burning bright against a gentle sunrise and filling what would have been a rare sky with all too common carnage. After a couple moments Burns and the rest of my team ran up next to me.

              “What the fuu…” Burns said as he came to a stop. He looked at the dancing flames in awe and shock. I knew he loved fire but I never thought the sight of our HQ engulfed in a torrent of flame would actually excite him. I suppose he couldn’t help it.

              I heard more running behind me and assumed it was a straggler but the running rushed right passed us. I vaguely remember seeing Saturn sprinting full tilt towards the shack. “There’s movement,” she yelled back at us. “Someone is out there trying to fight the fire!”

              I was running again, this time joined by Burns, Fox, and Liliya and her crew. We all moved as fast as our ragged bodies would let us. As we neared the burning shack, it was evident there was someone trying futilely to extinguish the fire. It wasn’t until we were within one hundred feet from the shack that I realized it was Pillar fighting the blaze. When we arrived we found Saturn fighting with Pillar to stop her efforts but Pillar refused to give up. She seemed crazed and unlike herself. Burns ran up to her and pinned her arms to her side and dragged her away from the shack. It was just in time too as the crated ammunition began to explode sending shrapnel everywhere.               “Pillar,” somebody yelled, “what the hell happened?”

              She started to explain excitedly but I barely caught a word she said. My mind was numbed and ears deafened. The gravity of the situation was much more than I could handle. Why at a time like this? We finally had something go our way. Not so much Brantley and his squad’s way, but definitely our way. I caught little snippets about how it was already like that when Pillar returned. Apparently she had set out to gather a few things before we returned but didn’t get too far before the smoke began to rise.

              None of that mattered to me, however. Nothing mattered to me at that point to be matter of fact. I just lost everything. There were more than just things in that shack, there were memories. That was home to me, which meant safety and security. I had nowhere to go now, it was over. For the first time since I began my mission, I felt like truly giving up. My hope was rising away into the atmosphere along with the swirling black smoke.

              Pillar’s voice was the first thing I remember hearing clearly, “Daniel,” she said and the reason I remember it so vividly is because her tone was nothing I had ever heard come out of her mouth before or since. “I am so sorry, I shouldn’t have left, not with strangers around. This is all my fault.”

              “No, this is not your fault.” What I really wanted to say was, “Of course this is your fucking fault you dimwitted bitch! Why would you leave our HQ in the hands of unknown elements?!” Then I would’ve shot her in the face and I am sure that would’ve brought me some respite, but not much. But that’s not how it went, instead I said, “There’s no way you could’ve prevented something like this from happening, it was only a matter of time before this location was hit. Surprised it took this long.”

              We stood, well I sat on the ground while everyone stood around me, a couple hundred yards from the shack, well out of the blast zone and watched as the fire consumed everything around it. Luckily the shack was relatively isolated and it alone burned sparing Abiyah from another major catastrophe. 

              The fire had plenty of fuel and burned well into the night. It wasn’t until sometime near midnight that it finally died out enough for us to go to the shack and snuff the flames out completely. Nothing was left, not even the frame of the shack. The fire had burned so hot that the metal skeleton melted into a pool of loss and despair. It hit the hardest when I realized that all of our maps containing scouting paths and security weak points were in the fire. It took us months to gather all of that. It was like turning on a video game only to find out the save file you’d been working on for some eighty odd hours was corrupted.

              “Fox,” I said as I floated over to his location, “please tell me you have backups of all our maps and scouting materials.

              “Of course, Daniel. I keep backups of everything,” Fox responded calmly. My stomach did a little soft shoe in light of this news. Good old reliable Fox was a god damn back up hard drive.

              “Can you please transfer your files to my communicator?” I asked. At least there was that, but even with that information happiness eluded me. Now, if Fox told me he had a backup of the shack and everything in it, then maybe I would have felt better, but that wasn’t the case, so I felt like shit. Burns offered to let me stay with him but I declined figuring I could just squat in one of the broken down buildings in Abiyah, or one of the many homes.

              However, Fox reminded me of the pitfalls of staying in any of those houses: they are routinely raided by scavengers and the occasional Bloodless patrol. The houses were a little further in than the rest of the setup so the employees who occupied them wouldn’t have such a lengthy commute. My shack, on the other hand, was on the outskirts of town in the opposite direction of the compound.

              I settled on setting up a tent just inside the tree line of a cluster of trees that were located near the shack. I went into town and took what I could find from one of the big box sports supply stores and set up camp in the later stages of the afternoon. Even though I was well hidden inside the trees, I still felt exposed. It was as if a big piece of me was missing. I had limited ammo which meant if I encountered any problems I had better shoot straight and hope for small numbers.

              “Shouldn’t we get started on takin’ out the next station?” Burns asked once everything was setup. He volunteered to stay and help me get situated while Fox began to scout the next station.

              “We could,” I replied. “Though I’d rather wait for everyone to get back.” It had been a few days since we parted ways with Crowder and Buggs. I tried contacting both of them to bring them up to speed on where they would be reporting back to but they never responded. Saturn was away either relaxing or helping Fox, she wouldn’t say either way. Pillar cursed us all out and took off to go be angry and offended somewhere. And as far as Liliya and her crew went, I hadn’t the slightest clue as to what they were up to or if they would even return.

              The prospects for taking down the next station in a timely manner looked very bleak at that moment and they didn’t get any better with Fox’s return. “Sorry,” was the first word out of his mouth when he walked up. “This one is going to take some time, Daniel. It would appear that they are on to us. Security has been ramped up around the next station and I cannot get anywhere near it.” That was awful news because if Fox couldn’t get near it then we had zero chance of even looking at it.

              The transition was harsh. I went from moving forward and knowing exactly what needed to be done next to not having any direction and no clue as what my next move was going to be. It made me feel very alone, too. I usually got by on the knowledge that I would see my crew again at some point because we had a job to do. However, now that there was no prospect of another sub-station take down, I wasn’t sure when I would see them again, if ever. Of course, the never part was the depression talking. We weren’t giving up, we would have to see each other again sometime. In fact, it would be sooner than I thought at the time.